Tribal Gaming Operators Generate Record $39B in FY21, 43 Casinos Make 52% GGR

Tribal gaming enjoyed a record-breaking twelvemonth inwards financial twelvemonth 2021, federal officials proclaimed before this week. However, a deeper look at the data provided past the National American Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) showed that few operators reaped most of the benefits.

The country’s tribal casinos and other venues reported 144 gaming revenues (GGR) of $39 billion for the financial year. That represented a 40% advance o'er the $27.8 one million million won inward the fiscal yr 2020, which was unnatural severely past COVID-19. It also is a 13% leap from the 2019 financial yr GGR.

I’d ilk to country that, inwards general, Native American gaming is doing very well,” NIGC Chairman E. Sequoyah Simermeyer said inwards a picture statement Wednesday announcing the results. “You hold rebounded from the industry-wide challenges faced during the pandemic. If financial year 2021 has shown anything, it has demonstrated that American Indian gaming is a resilient industry.”

COVID-19 allay had an impact on the tribal gaming community. Simermeyer noted the land endured a record luxuriously list of closures.

43 Casinos Accounted for Majority of GGR

The commission noted the disparity that exists among tribal gaming entities. For example, 8% of the tribes reported their gaming enterprises generated revenues of at least $250 million for the fiscal year. That’s compared to 55% that reported a GGR of less than $25 million.

That top out 8%, which equates to 43 operators, accounted for 52% of all tribal GGR lastly year, while the freighter 55% produced just now 6%.

Tribes engage inwards gaming for a variety of reasons and have got different shipway to delineate an operations’ success,” Vice Chair Jeanne Hovland said. “Not all gaming trading operations saw as great of a rebound inwards revenues. Location, regional dynamics around competition, and other regional economical characteristics – similar workforce and tourism opportunities – put up all forge operators’ case-by-case strategies and the stride of recovery.”

In fiscal year 2020, just now 4% of operators reported revenues of $250 jillion or more. Those with GGR totals of to a lesser extent than $25 gazillion accounted for 64% of the operators.

Some Regions Still Behind 2019 Totals

From a regional perspective, all octet of the commission’s regions reported at least a 28.3% increment from 2020. The Rapid City, SD realm reported a 56% jump. The casinos in Montana, Second Earl of Guilford Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming posted GGR totaling $372.6 million.

Sacramento once again was the most lucrative region, with the tribal venues inwards California and Northern NV generating $11.9 1000000000 in revenues. The DC region, which encompasses all tribal gaming outlets in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, New York, and Second Earl of Guilford Carolina, reported a tote up GGR of $8.1 billion.

To Hovland’s dot around recovery, while Phoebe regions reported gains of at least 9.8% compared to 2019, ternary of the NIGC’s regions ease hold yet to issue to pre-pandemic revenue levels.

The Rapid City region was down pat(p) 1.1% from its 2019 total. Casinos in the St. St. Paul region, which includes Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Wisconsin, generated $4.8 one million million utmost year. That’s down pat(p) $135 million, or 2.7%, from its 2019 total.

In the capital of Arizona region, which covers Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Southern Nevada, the $3.2 1000000000000 inward GGR for 2021 was nearly $58 meg less than its 2019 tally.